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But what many of those people don't realize is that while texting for them is just another among many forms of communication in the digital world, for a whole segment of society it has completely changed the way they live.
In the last 10 years, phones that make texting easy have changed life significantly for the deaf and the speech impaired.
No longer is distance an almost insurmountable obstacle. Deaf wives can text their husbands at the supermarket, and interactions between deaf people and the hearing no longer have to rely on written notes, sign language interpreters or expressive body language.
Brittany Nelms can hear, but both of her parents are deaf. Texting radically changed both the ease and level of their interaction.
Nelms and her family still use sign language to talk when they are face to face, but getting in touch with her parents when they are in different places is much easier.
"Before, when we wanted to talk on the phone, we would always have to talk with a relay operator," Nelms said. "Now we can communicate a lot more."
It helps, because Nelms lives in Aztec and her parents live in Farmington.
Nelms' mother, Susan Haley, who was born deaf, said now that she can talk to her daughter long distance, the old way of communicating is almost inconceivable.
"I'm not a crazy texter,"
Texting also has made it easier for deaf people to relate to the hearing.
Nelms' husband Joe has spent the three years of their marriage learning to sign, but much of his communication with Nelms' parents is done by text message.
"Coming into the signing world as a non-signing person is hard," Joe said. "Texting has made it so that I can communicate with Brittany's father and mother. It has really eased the language barrier."
Texting hasn't just improved life for the deaf. It also profoundly has changed life for millions of non-verbal people.
Marlene Velasquez has had cerebral palsy since she was 3. She is confined to a wheel chair, and she can't talk, but she can hear just fine.
"No doctor can tell me," Velasquez typed into her iPhone referring to why she can't talk. "It has something to do with (cerebral palsy)."
There is no doubt that Velasquez loves the independence and newfound ability to communicate. Her first response to the question of how important her phone is was a peal of unadulterated and girlish giggles.
It's no wonder that whenever she types, a huge smile creases her face. The 40-year-old spent the first 30 years of her life locked in a world of silence, where she had to communicate by writing notes.
She still remembers that first message she texted 10 years ago.
"Look mom, I can talk to you now," Velasquez typed all these years later, tears coming to her eyes. "My mom started crying."
They've talked every day since.
Texting is far easier than having to write everything down, she says.
"I also don't have to get out my communication equipment, which is so big and bulky," Velasquez wrote. "And now I can call people."
Velasquez's iPhone also has given her a voice.
Velasquez giggled again, and then typed something into her phone. Suddenly, a computer generated voice spoke out: "Hello, how are you today?"
The experience was so exciting that she broke into
"It's an app specifically for that purpose," Velasquez wrote.
Another new application that deaf people are watching with excitement is the video chat software on the new iPhone. The hope is that it will work for sign language.
"Sign is still the best way to communicate face to face," Nelms interpreted for her mother. "You can communicate a lot more by signing, and it is more fluid than texting."
Branda Parker is the interim director for San Juan Center for Independence, and she believes that texting makes it possible for deaf and non-verbal people to live on their own.
"Take Velasquez for instance. For people that aren't around her and know how to understand her, texting allows her to communicate better and allows her to live more independently," Parker said. "Just by looking at her, people would expect her to be in a nursing home, but what they don't realize is that she's all there. So it's really a new era."
